Posted by Joyce
I'm going to have a blog-break for a couple of weeks, as we've got loads on. Hannah comes home this afternoon, and I am pathetically excited. My mother phoned me to say though that she couldn't quite believe it, but HE really seemed to be working, and Hannah was *a little* overactive sometimes, wasn't she? LOL. I think my parents are ready for three days on the couch without moving. However, it's such a nasty day here, they have offered to drive half way, and swap her over in a service station about 75 miles away, so that will save me a much longer drive. I keep hearing about all this English sun, and feeling rather miffed that we don't apparently have Scottish sun. Its been raining for days.

Hannah is 8 on Saturday. How did that happen when I wasn't looking? She wants a cabin bed for her birthday, so after I pick her up, we are going to pop into IKEA to see what they have, though we won't be buying today, as I will never be able to lift it onto the roof rack by myself.

Anyway, hope you all have a good couple of weeks, and I'll be back on line long before HESFES. (which I've just realised, I haven't received my tickets for yet, and it must be 6 weeks since I sent for them). Anybody else got theirs?

Posted by Joyce

Surrogate kids ;-)
Didn't have quite a child-free day today. A family from our home ed group are down staying nearby in a caravan for the easter weekend. Didn't know they were here till they phoned at 10am to say that one of their daughters had sliced the top of her finger off in an accident, and needed to go to A&E, and could the other three come and play with Hannah. Explained that Hannah wasn't here, but the kids still opted to come here rather than trail to the hospital, so I got to hama, paint and play doh after all. They were here till after lunch, till the wounded one returned.

DH and I then seemed to accidently find ourselves in the pub again - is there a theme developing here? Hannah once again wouldn't talk to me on the phone, so she is going to get a serious talking to when she comes home. I want her to understand that when she is away from home, she needs to talk to me so that I know she is OK. Mum says she's having a good time though.

DH and I did some serious talking about how unhappy I am at work, but to be reviewed in the sober light of day.

Posted by Joyce
grown up time

DH and I walked into town in the afternoon, and did a bit of hunting/gathering for the holiday, until we admitted that we were really only killing time till it felt like a reasonable hour to go to the pub. So having agreed on that, we hot footed it to a grown up pub near the waterside. We had a slight confusion there - showing how rarely we get out - as I was buying the wine, I noticed it was only 50 pence more to buy a bottle of wine, rather than two glasses, and changed the order at the last minute, and ended up with two bottles instead. Oh well, we coped ;-)

As we were walking home, we passed a new Indian restaurant, so we went in there and had dinner. I'd phoned Hannah as we were walking and she refused to come to the phone. I hope it this means she is having a good time.

Its a lovely day here, so may get some gardening done. I'm also investigating the potential for taking the tent to France in the summer, so we might put our old frame tent up to see if it is still intact.

Posted by Joyce
I'm missing my wean

Took Hannah to my mum's yesterday to stay for a few days, as I've no childminder this week. Bob had asked her several weeks ago if we needed alternative cover for the Easter holidays, and I don't know if one of them misunderstood or not, but he was convinced that she had said no. Anyway, came out only casually in conversation with me about 10 days ago that she couldn't take Hannah this week. As we pay for childminding even if Hannah isn't there, and she will already miss two other weeks this month there, we then couldn't afford the out-of-school club at the private nursery she used to go to either, and that was that was the only place that had space (probably as its so expensive lol). Anyway, my mum was happy to have her, but they live so far away it means that she needs to stay with them, and this is only the second time she's been away. The last time was in the summer when MIL died, so we were so busy, and not staying in our own house anyway, that we almost didn't realise she wasn't there. But this time I'm a bit lost. Which just goes to show that I really need to get some more interests in my life - but the problem is that when Hannah is at home, I don't really have time to do them, especially with DH's erratic shift pattern. Anyway - I've got from now till Thursday by myself. So what DID we do in the past on holiday weekends???

Posted by Joyce
Nothing about HE

Just arrived home from work. Wasn't too bad today, but yesterday was truly horrible. Left here at 6.15am, and finally got home just before 10pm - DH was about to go on night shift, and was literally standing at the door with his car keys in his hand waiting for me. Hannah wanted to sleep with me since she hadn't seen me all day, so we left the hama beads scattered all over the house, and fell into bed. She carried on talking, but I fell asleep. Today I was in Glasgow this morning, so not nearly so far to commute and I got home around 2.30pm. DH still sleeping, and Hannah still at the childminder, so a peaceful blog and a cup of tea ;-)

Tomorrow we are having a new HE friend round for a visit. We met a couple of months ago, and we've been meeting every fortnight at a play centre in Glasgow, but its so busy there this week, we decided to move our relationship on a notch. The mothers that is - the kids have been agitating for home visits for weeks! So once I can put the hoover on, I need to make some attempt at tidying up, and maybe make a tortilla to have cold tomorrow for lunch. To date, I have a gaping hole in the wall in the kitchen, as the double oven is out being repaired (much cheaper to haul it out ourselves and take it to the repair shop than to have a call out), and another empty space under the (new) TV where the (new) DVD player should be. The Sony man came out under guarantee, scratched his head, and took it away. Its been gone for two weeks already.Given it's less than three months old, I feel we should have got a loan of one while it was away, but DH didn't argue the toss, and I'm not taking on any more battles right now. As a bit of added excitement though, if we want oven cooked food, we have to take it out to the caravan to cook it in the gas oven there.

One nice thing did happen this morning - by coincidence, the family on the pitch next to us at Woolacombe last summer were HEers. Hannah was beside herself with excitement when we realised. I think the best bit was when the girl asked her "are you home educated, or do you go to school?", rather than the "what class are you in/what school do you go to?" question that she usually gets. Anyway, the mother sent me an email this morning, to say that they've booked again this summer - and we also booked it last week, for exactly the same dates. So Hannah is really chuffed about that.

And finally - is it me, or do other people have an aversion to the phrase "nibbles"? It really sets my teeth on edge - there was an invitation in the post today for "drinks and nibbles", and I almost instantly decided I didn't want to go on the basis of that word. My other pet hates (on a roll now) are "sarnies" and "butties". I HATE these words, and am constitutionally unable to eat either. Here we call them "pieces". Or failing that "sandwiches". But the rest {shudder}. Clearly I am turning into a grumpy old git. It'll be net curtains next, and tutting at the neighbours :-)

Definitely not an HE blog today, so don't have to consult Hannah about posting this one.

Posted by Joyce
Should I get broadband?

I have suddenly reached the stage with my internet connection that I reached about 4 years ago, when I upgraded to an anytime contract from a no-ties one. Only this time, of course, I want broadband, which just arrived here a few weeks ago with ADSL. There was a satellite option before, but it was *really* expensive to set up, and we don't have cable yet, and won't do for at least a couple more years. I don't really need it so much for me. Though I do use the internet for research, on the whole my heavy use is for email, and we never download music or anything. Nevertheless its starting to be a pain not to have phone use when I'm on line, and I end up either using my mobile instead, or coming off and on line. So would I be better with just another phone line, so I could run the fax machine separately as well? On the other hand, Hannah has suddenly got interested in the internet by using neopets and the Usborne quick links, and they are both really slow and painful with the dial up. I also find that I seem to be getting sent bigger and bigger attachments nowadays (proofs for checking, or designs to sign off etc), and they keep jamming up at the server, and I need to delete them on the web, as they won't download. Is this a problem that having broadband would fix, or is this some other issue? I'd hate to pay for broadband, and then find it was just as much of a problem. I really grudge the extra £13 a month, but maybe its a legitimate HE expense? LOL. I am also really nervous about actually doing it, as everyone I know who's upgraded to broadband seems to have disappeared into a sort of cyber black hole for weeks, and lost loads of data. I really can't afford to risk not having email at all, because it will loose me work. So -what's the consensus? Is it worth it? Is it easy? Can I still have a dial up connection installed with no-ties in case of emergencies? All views and reassurance welcome. Votes in the comment box.

Posted by Joyce

Spent the day trailing from one out of school activity to the other.

In the morning, Hannah wanted to go to a fun day that was being organised at one of the rural leisure centres, so DH took her to that while I got a couple of hours work done. She came back with her face painted, so we had to wash that off while DH rushed off to work, so that I could take her to the two hour splash session at the pool in town. We were sitting having a cup of tea afterwards, when her swimming teacher walked past and said "you're early for your lesson". Scream. I sort of assumed that the lessons wouldn't run this week. So we hung around for another hour, and then I waited (again) till she had her lesson. Which probably was good value today, as only one other child turned up, so she got a lot of input on stroke development. But I was sooooooo bored.

This evening she sat glued to something about King Edward longshanks that Dh had taped her off the History Channel, and wrote her diary. Well, she admits quite freely that she wrote one sentence in an hour, but at least it was voluntary. I had hoped she might be exhausted enough to sleep, but she is still wide awake, and playing with the maths twister thing. I wouldn't mind, except she'll be awake at 5am, which is really about the point where my own insomnia gives up, and I *could*, if I got peace, sleep for about 4 hours probably. Grumble, moan.

Posted by Joyce
Saturday

Decided to take in some of the holiday stuff, so we walked down to the pool for splash time. On the way through the park, we noticed frog spawn in the river, so I was told to go to the library and get some books about frogs while Hannah was swimming. The library even had some, which was even more of a miracle. I was completely fed up by the end of the day though, as its swimming for 90 minutes, then back to meet her to take her to drama (just along the corridor), and then 50 minutes later meet her again and take her along to the gym hall for Fitkid, which also lasts 50 minutes. Apart from the 90 minutes swim time, when I prefer not to leave the building anyway, as its not directly supervised, apart from with the life guards, the other sessions are too short to do anything constructive, and too far from town to even go shopping. So I just hang about feeling inadequate with all these gorgeous, un paint spattered, made up women.

In the evening, we read all the frog books, and Hannah made a sort of time line thing of a frogs life, which seemed vaguely pleasing to me in relation to satisfying my need to have her produce "things" now and again. This book in particular went down a storm.

Sunday

DH on early shift, so Hannah appeared at 5.30am wanting to chat, and read me her frog books, while I lay with a supportive smile pasted on, pretending it wasn't happening.

Went to Cluzean Castle this morning, and it was lovely when we left the house, but by the time we arrived it was chucking it down. We ate our picnic in the car, but it didn't let up and then (horrors) we discovered the coffee shop was shut as well, so I'm glad we have NTS membership, and we hadn't actually parted with any money. However, the shop WAS open and we bought Alpha Animals reduced to £4.99 and Bioviva, reduced to £9.99. We rushed home in the end to play with the new games, but I'm embarrassed to say I found them both really difficult. The Bioviva one especially, which is like ecological trivial pursuit was meant to be from 8 years up, but I hardly knew any of the answers, and in the end when it was clear we were never going to collect all our pieces, we set a time limit, and the winner was the person with the most pieces. Hannah actually won, due to a run of luck on frog related questions.

And then DH had picked her up an Art Attack magazine on his way home from work. it really ****** me off, as the projects always seem to require stuff I don't actually have, but Hannah has started to make a home for a toy seal, so it must have sparked her off.

Our bedroom is finished, and looks completely different this time. Huge relief to have ditched the florals, and its completely plain, with a bright geometric design for the duvet. Hasn't actually made the room bigger of course :-), but it looks much nicer.

Posted by Joyce

Posted by Joyce
Spent the day here with the home ed group. I remember at school learning about Robert Owen's social experiment in New Lanark, and his philanthropy towards his workers. What I didn't quite understand then was that it was all relative, and he still expected 10 years olds to work in the Mill for 10 hours a day, six days a week. The guide was good, but struggled to get her head round home ed, and kept asking how often we were inspected, and how we kept up with the national curriculum, and a lot of the examples given were school related, but I think generally the kids enjoyed themselves. The guide asked Hannah what she liked best about home education, and she said "Being able to get cuddles whenever I want them. Not having to do boring stuff. Having proper towels in the toilet. Having my own pencil sharpener. Getting read to whenenver I want". Not sure whether this was a good advert or not, but interesting to see where her priorities lie!

Here is Hannah doing hand carding of the flax


And here she is in the schoolroom. Robert Owen was ahead of his time, in that corporal punishment was expressly forbidden, and he provided music lessons in school


And finally - this child has NEVER been to school - so where did she learn to do this?


I'd promised to take Hannah to the Easter Pool Disco tonight at the leisure centre, but she had such a major tantrum because I got mildly cross as she hadn't put her costume on after three reminders, that we didn't go. So now she's cried herself to sleep :-(

Posted by Joyce
Made it to work yesterday, and it wasn't too bad once I got there. I'm writing a website just now at work, which will probably completely kill anyone who knows what I'm like on the PC, but I don't do the fancy stuff (either the techie stuff OR the designing). Before I was off I'd commissioned and briefed a web developer, and we had agreed on site architecture and design, so I've gradually been writing all the copy. I've now just about got a first draft ready for consultation and pre-testing, so I'm feeling at least like I've achieved something. I was able to work at home today, and it was nice, as DH was off and he was decorating, and though we didn't really spend any time together, it was good to just have him around casually, and have a bit of company. I also played around and finally cracked the blog photos (see below!). You know that way when you puzzle over something for weeks, and then once you forget about it, and come back to it, you wonder what all the fuss was about, as it was so easy. Anyway.

I'd sent Hannah to the childminder today, even though I was at home since I really needed to concentrate. Usually I let her stay at home, and she understands that I need to get some time to work, but I just stop and start to suit her, but when I'm writing something, I really like to have an undisturbed length of time. So we picked her up about 4pm, and she came home all fired up about Castles, and went looking for the Channel 4 book that I bought her in Axminster last HESFES, as she'd got interested in the programmes. She tried to read it for a bit, but it was really too much for her, so I found the bit she wanted, which she had remembered from the TV series, and read it too her. Then we remembered that in the Usborne Beginners series there had been one on Castles, so she read that to herself while she was eating her dinner, and then asked to try some of the quick links. Which is probably the first time she's spontaneously asked to use the pooter. Normally I suggest it, if I want to work myself, as I set the laptop up next to our own desktop, but she has never been that interested. One of the links went to the National Geographic site, and had a castle tour, so she played on that for a bit. I think I really need to look at Broadband though. It only reached us a few weeks ago, so I've never really considered it till now, but that site was so slow to load, it drove us both mad. The only thing that puts me off is that everyone who gets Broadband seems to disappear into some broadband hell hole for about 10 days, and loose all their settings etc, so I'm nervous of giving it a go.

And then the childminder had loaned her Mulan, which she's never seen, so the two of us watched that, and she remembered that Mulan's "boy" name of Ping was the same as Ping the duck (from FIAR). I had till then assumed it was a made up name, but since Ping is also set in China, we decided it was probably a real Chinese name. So from that she read Ping to me, and we looked up China on the globe, and talked about the Great Wall. Which was also mentioned in one of her magazines recently, so she set off looking for that, and it was in a section with other man made wonders, so we had a quick sortie round the Pyramids and the Acropolis, and finished up with the Olympic games and the Trojan Horse. Phew.

I've been trying to teach her mind mapping, but its quite hard to explain, I find, so once she was in bed we did a sort of retrospective mind map of everything we'd covered as a result of watching the film, to show her how you can link ideas up. She decorating it right now. I wish she's just sleep.

Anyway, a better end to the week, and I am glad I made myself go to work - it was still horrible, but I wasn't so panicky this week. And tomorrow we are going to New Lanark with the HE group.

Posted by Joyce


May be getting the hang of this. For someone with a dyslexic child, can't tell you how happy this picture makes me!



Where do we home educate? On the stairs! DH teaching Hannah to read music. Bit of an oxymoron that one!

Posted by Joyce
I think a minor miracle may have occurred. I *think* I have finally got blog pics. It certainly sent me an email with the picture on after I posted it, though the web hasn't been updated yet, so I can't actually see. But if its true, this is Hannah in our dining room,. doing something educational with scalextrix, and telling everyone that school is not compulsory.

Posted by Joyce